The top three ranked were: taking "major steps to restore a strong economy and job market," with 95 percent of respondents ranking it as "extremely" or "very" important; taking "major steps to ensure the long-term stability of Social Security and Medicare," ranked "extremely" or "very" important by 88 percent of respondents; and preventing "Iran from developing a nuclear weapon," cited by 79 percent of respondents as "extremely" or "very" important.

The rankings broke the same when respondents were identified as Democrats, Republicans and Independent, although the numbers were slightly different.

Gallup polled 1,009 adults by phone Nov. 9-12. The results have a margin of error of 4 percentage points.